The Outlaw Prince's Captive - Holly Rayner Page 0,37

do that. It was the only way to ensure that you stayed safe. But I wish you hadn’t insisted on going into his house.”

“This is all so hasty,” Francesca said. “There must have been some kind of plan in place. Voles must have realized that the royal family would know we were here eventually. What was he going to do then? I mean, suppose we’d apprehended the suspect and brought him back to New York? The royal family would definitely have found out about it then.”

“I’ve been thinking about that too,” Laird said. “The only thing I can come up with is that maybe this isn’t entirely your fault.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that maybe Voles put the two of us in a no-win situation,” Laird said. “He sent us here hoping that we would be able to make the arrest but knowing that we might not. Either way, he knew that the royal family would become aware of our presence, and that our careers might need to be sacrificed.”

Francesca was stunned. “You think Voles only gave us this case because we’re expendable?” she asked. “Because he thought that if someone had to be fired to appease the royal family at the end of the day, it might as well be us?”

“I don’t know for sure,” Laird said. “But it doesn’t seem to me as though he sent us into this situation with a lot of concern for our well-being. Does it seem that way to you?”

“No,” Francesca said.

“It did seem strange that he gave us this case,” Laird said. “I wanted to think he was helping us out. Putting his confidence in us at last. But it’s an awfully big case to be the first one we take on our own.”

“It did seem like it should have gone to Stevens,” Francesca admitted. She felt sick at heart. She had been so proud of being assigned her first big case with Laird, so eager to do well and to make a good impression. But now it seemed as though the whole thing had been a setup. She had been doomed to fail from the moment she had started.

“But why couldn’t he just fire us?” she asked. “Why go through all of this?”

“I suppose because there was a chance we might succeed,” Laird said. “There was a chance we might actually make the arrest and bring the suspect back. We’d still have had to be punished to preserve the agency’s image. But they would have gotten their man.”

“They’re using us,” Francesca said.

“Yeah,” Laird said heavily. “I think they are.”

“And now I’m just supposed to quit investigating the situation because Voles says so?” she asked, feeling indignant. “He’s ready to throw away my career no matter what I do, so why on earth should I cooperate now?”

“You’re not listening to me, are you?” Laird asked. “It’s going to be bad for us no matter what, but it’s definitely going to be worse if we refuse to cooperate. Maybe we can get through this with a write-up. A slap on the wrist. Maybe we won’t actually lose our jobs.”

“Okay, maybe,” Francesca said. “But if so, we’re still going to be stuck reporting to Voles. He thinks we’re expendable. He’s proven it. How long do you think it will be before he tries something like this again?”

“What do you want to do about it, then?” Laird asked.

“I don’t know,” Francesca admitted. “But if I think of something, can I count on your support?”

“I must be crazy,” he muttered.

Her spirits lifted. “Is that a yes?”

“It’s a yes,” he said. “Just try not to get us arrested.”

Chapter 13

Francesca hardly slept at all that night, so distraught was she at the idea that Voles considered her expendable. She had truly believed that she had grown enough in his estimation to deserve her own case. Now it turned out that she had only been assigned this case because other agents were too valuable to take it on.

The sun was up by the time she finally fell asleep, and she was plagued by nightmares as she slept. Over and over, she saw Voles and Chuck Stevens laughing at her, telling her how stupid she was to have believed that she could make it in the FBI. Over and over, she saw Laird telling her that he could have succeeded if he hadn’t been shackled to her.

When she finally awoke, she was surprised to find that she had slept through most of the day. In spite of her fraught emotions,